• As vigil ends, work for immigrant justice continues

    As vigil ends, work for immigrant justice continues

    The Interfaith Immigration Coalition spent April 23-25 in a 48-hour vigil for immigrant justice in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as the Justices prepared to hear arguments on Arizona’s controversial law SB 1070. One after the other, Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Unitarian and United Church of Christ groups offered prayer, song and testimony on why from a faith community we are called to defend the immigrant and others who have been “cast out” or impoverished. Read full blogpost by Rev. Noel Andersen

  • Mississippi church leaders oppose harsh HB 488

    Mississippi church leaders oppose harsh HB 488

    “(W)e express our deep concern about the growing climate of an anti-immigrant attitude developing in our communities and in the halls of State government.  We are very distressed by efforts directed at passing legislation [HB 488] that threatens the dignity of the human person and the basic human rights that we accord to the dignity of the family unit.”

    From Mississippi bishops’ statement on proposed anti-immigrant legislation. HB 488 ultimately was defeated! Click here to read the full statement

  • Faithful resistance to Alabama's HB 56

    Faithful resistance to Alabama’s HB 56

    Alabama’s House Bill 56 is the harshest anti-immigrant legislation yet to pass in the United States. Alabama is now the epicenter of the immigration debate. That’s why, just a few weeks after beginning my work with Church World Service as the Grassroots Coordinator for Immigrants’ Rights, I knew it was important to spend some time in Alabama. I spent much of December in Alabama, returning in January, for meetings with pastors, speaking in churches and coordinating training for organizers. Read Rev. Noel Andersen’s blogpost …

Ways you can advocate for immigrants’ rights

 

Speak out for local, state, and national reforms to immigration and refugee policies to help reunite and keep families together, improve the welcome that refugee receive upon arrival, and build stronger, more welcoming communities.

URGENT ACTION: On Wednesday night (May 16), the U.S. House of Representatives passed a version of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that, if enacted into law, could have serious implications for the safety of victims of domestic violence. Since the Senate has passed a more inclusive version of the bill, which continues to ensure important protections for immigrant survivors of domestic abuse, a ‘conference committee’ will now consider the two bills and decide which version will become law.

Once the members of this conference committee are announced, we will post their names here as key members to contact. For now, it is still important to call your Senators and Representative TODAY to urge them to enact the SENATE version of VAWA – and to REJECT the House version.

  • Educate your community about how Alabama’s anti-immigrant law HB56 is tearing apart families and communities and urge your local policy makers to oppose any AL ‘copy-cat’ bills in your state.
  • Sign up for CWS Speak Out Alerts to receive up to date information on important policy decisions that would impact the lives of refugees and immigrants (less than 10 emails are sent per year).
  • Learn how SERVICE SPEAKS can transform your service to refugees and immigrants into policy change.

Work with your local law enforcement offices to stop racial profiling, family separation, and unnecessary detention and deportations in your community. Learn more in the Secure Communities Toolkit, and join others across the U.S. (see map here) by signing up to take action.

MORE “S.COMM” RESOURCES

MORE RESOURCES

CWS-SOJOURNERS MYTHBUSTER SERIES ON IMMIGRANTS & IMMIGRATION

Myths and misinformation abound when it comes to the topic of immigration reform. In response, Sojourners and Church World Service collaborated on a joint three-part blog series, “Mythbusters.” Originally published here in October 2010, we also are pleased to offer the series in this Consolidated Mythbusters Series document for easy sharing.

OPEN CALL FOR VIDEO, PHOTO, ART SUBMISSIONS
FROM IMMIGRANTS, REFUGEES AND THEIR ALLIES

We’d like to make the CWS network aware of an open call for videos, images, animations, multimedia pieces, music, writing and other art for inclusion.  The call comes from Deep Dish TV, a national, independent satellite network linking of independent artists, independent media makers & activists.

Deep Dish is working on a multiplatform (web, tv, DVD) collaborative media project, Uprooted: A Grassroots Examination of the Politics of Migration. Uprooted is a media project that challenges the mainstream media’s “immigration debate” by highlighting the social & economic policies that drive migration.It delves into how migrant justice issues intersect with labor issues, xenophobia, the prison industrial complex, neo-imperialism and more. Uprooted encourages and enables migrant communities and their allies to document & distribute their narratives.

Submissions will be featured on the Uprooted blog, and incorporated in a 10-part series to be broadcast nationally and be distributed to universities, libraries, community organizations and exhibition spaces internationally. If you have project proposals you’d like to see realized, email uprooted@deepdishtv.org to learn more about possibilities for collaboration! Also find Deep Dish on Facebook and Twitter.
 

 

 Posted by at 6:24 pm
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